In the Valley of Elah

Despicable would be a compliment. To characterize our brave soldiers as butchers, drug dealers and heartless is beyond acceptable. Shame on all who played a part in producing this trash. Had I any idea of this film's intent, I would never... Full review

Writer/Director Paul Haggis's film 'The Valley of Elah', calls American soldiers sadistic, drug addled, child killing psychopaths with such compassion and sensitivity, one can almost hear the rumble of oncoming Oscars as the Hollywood Ultra Left once again congratulates itself for... Full review

It totally wrecked our date night. This movie is trash unless you enjoy the thought of people sons being killed. I have a brother that has been to Bosnia and Afghanistan, and I understand all too real what the movie is... Full review

The core of this film is about the making of monsters, which is what you get when you send soft, coddled and deluded American kids into wars that cannot be morally justified. The subject in this case is a young man... Full review

although this story (a few good men) and others have been done, the acting of tommy lee jones is definitely going to earn him an oscar nomination. he is so believable as the former military man. nice job also by charlize... Full review

Paul Haggis has done a masterful job at engaging his audience with this mystery-type approach to a very important issue going on with many of our men and women that are coming home from the war. Tommy Lee Jones performance is... Full review

I just saw this film and consider it to be one of the best anti-war films I've seen in quite a long time. And that makes me wonder at what the various critics are thinking. Roger Ebert gets it right,... Full review

This movie is just about perfect. I love how it starts as a genre movie and then transcends into something deeper and soul-searching. Some people just don't like Paul Haggis, but I'm not one of them. I think he's very... Full review

Only Roger Ebert and the reviewer for Rolling Stone seem to see the truth here: this film is slow and elegiac because it deals with heavy matters, but it is never boring, not if you understand the situation and the... Full review

There have been many films about the aftermath of war, but never have I seen such a brutally honest and shocking depiction of the de-humanization of soldiers back from war. This is the underlying premise of the new crime thriller... Full review

That's a profoundly unsettling idea, but In the Valley of Elah also uses the American flag to bring you to tears. The creases are deeper now, and so, in this role, are the wounds, but Jones, in a powerful performance, somehow holds every emotion in and shows it to you anyway. ... Full Review

The one aspect of In The Valley Of Elah that does workthe one that single-handedly continues to generate interest in the film long after the rest have fallen by the waysideis the highly impressive lead performance from Tommy Lee Jones. As for the mystery elements, they basically consist of the cops doing stupid things that lead them to launching into erroneous conclusions and Tommy Lee Jones breezily pointing out their huge and glaring errors over and over. ... Full Review

In The Valley Of Elah is not an exceedingly enjoyable film But In The Valley Of Elah is a film that serves its purpose and makes a strong, possibly dated statement. Its overwrought and predictable Haggis-ish conclusion can certainly be criticized ... Full Review

It's an elegiac and cathartic story about parental love and responsibility, about the terrible things that war does to people, how it can change and corrupt them. Haggis follows that thread with satisfying attention to detail, parceling out clues, suspects, red herrings, and surprises in a way that falls right in line with the formulaic (I use that term in a positive, comfort-food sense) movies and crime shows we're familiar with. ... Full Review

In the Valley of Elah , even without a closing scene that is quietly powerful enough to enrage those of a certain political perspective, is both a smart mystery and a strong anti-war message. This is a movie about seeking out the truth, whether it be the facts surrounding a young mans disappearance, or the truth of what terrible things lead people down paths they otherwise never would have travelled down. ... Full Review

Fall is the time that studios start to roll out their Oscar contenders , andcritics are already buzzingabout some of the movies that might make the cut. ... Full Article

First of all the movie wasnt about a father being overly mean and sending his son to war that broke his wifes heart.It wasnt about her grief that was secondary (all wars produce grieving mothers). ... Full Article

Five years after the invasion, conflict in Iraq rumbles on.And there are countless stories to be told. But unlike Vietnam, where Hollywood mostly waited until the conflict was officially over before setting the screenwriters to work and the cameras... ... Full Article

Jason Patric (In the Valley of Elah) and Thomas Dekker (Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) joined the cast of My Sister's Keeper, a Jeremy Leven-penned adaptation of the popular novel by Jodi Picoult. ... Full Article

On Tuesday, Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for an Oscar for his lead role in In The Valley Of Elah, and deservedly so. It might not have been a stretch for him to play a sturdy but weary authoritarian he... ... Full Article